Weekly Franciscan reflections
Start every week here, with a Franciscan reflection on what the Gospel, St. Francis, and biblical stories offer to us that we can bring forward into our daily life.
Reflection for week of 6th July, 2025
Forgiveness
In our reflections this month, we focus on the idea of forgiveness. It was, of course, a central teaching of Jesus, but it is also part of St. Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures. Francis writes, “Praised be You, my Lord, through those who give pardon for Your love, and bear infirmity and tribulation.”
The meaning of forgiveness can be tricky to understand. Forgiveness implies that someone has hurt us in some way, that they have done or said something that violates the love that the Lord calls us to have for one another.
Some hurts are not so big, but others are extremely painful and difficult to overcome. Some even feel impossible to forgive.
Forgiveness does not ignore the hurt we experience—in fact, forgiveness first acknowledges the hurt that someone has caused. We may feel that they owe us something to make up for the hurt, and ironically, we ourselves are held hostage by this sense of being owed—we double our suffering.
True forgiveness means that we say to that person (either in our hearts or out loud), “I release you from the debt you owe me for this hurt.” Jesus did exactly that by dying on the cross. He released every person from the debt of every sin they may ever commit.
This week, let us reflect on debts that we feel are owed to us, and how we might free ourselves by releasing those debts through forgiveness.
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